Floor



June 29, 1937. A c, GONZALEZ 2,085,215

FLOOR Filed June 20, 1956 7V A 2 JOi 3 5 0 a D 0 A p INVENTOR Auguslo t. fiongale;

KET0RNEYS Patented June 29, 1937 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFli'lE Claims.

My'invention relates to an improvement in floors which may, if desired, be assembled in sections independent of the foundation or sub-floor,

10 wood, metal, or synthetic compositions, assembled so as to cover the entire wearing surface of the floor or a section thereof; flat resilient members cemented or glued to the undersurface of the wear members, and composed of any resilient material, such as felt or insulation board,

the dimensions and arrangement of the resilient members being such as to leave a marginal portion of the wear surface extending beyond the resilient members, preferably on all sides; and battens or fastening strips of wood, or the like, arranged beneath such extending marginal portions of the wear surface and of less thickness than the resilient members so as to permit compression of said resilient members at their edges, and fastened to the edges of the wear surface members by wood screws, or the like. These floor members, or sections comprising a plurality thereof, are laid upon the foundation or subfioor of cement or other suitable construction, the latter being first preferably rendered water or moist-proof by any suitable water-proofing composition. The invention also contemplates the forming of grooves or channels in the resilient members for convenient and economic installation of cable, wiring, or pipes, of any nature laid in between the sub-floor and the hard wearing surface.

The invention also comprises other features which will be more fully described in the following specification, and set out in the claims.

In the accompanying drawing which illustrates one embodiment of my invention by way of example,

Fig. 1 is a plan view of a portion of a floor constructed in accordance with my invention, and

Fig. 2 is a cross-sectional view thereof to a larger scale taken on the line 2, 2 of Fig. 1.

The floor comprises the sheets or strips I of suitable hard and durable wearing material, such as wood, metal, or synthetic composition, closely assembled over the entire surface of the floor. Preferably, however, for convenience and rapid handling these wear surfaces are assembled in sections, each section being made up of a plurality of sheets I closely assembled so that their edges will be in contact as shown in Fig. 1. Immediately underlying the wear surfaces i are sheets or strips 3 of resilient material, such as felt or insulation board, the horizontal dimensions of the sheets 3 being such as to leave projecting all around them the edges of the members I as shown in Fig. 2, so that a channel or space 9 is left beneath all of the projecting edges of the wear surfaces. The members I and 3 are fastened together by any suitable mastic cement or glue 2 which is applied to one or both of the contacting surfaces, and the members I and 3 are thereupon preferably pressed together so as to make a firm union between them, and form a united floor section I2.

The members I are fastened together and held level by arranging in the channels 9 battens 6 of wood, or the like, into which, through the members I, wood screws 1 or the like are driven, the holes therefor in the members I being preferably countersunk and filled with plastic wood, or the like as shown at 8. Thus the Wear surface is held as a single sheet and the battens being of less vertical thickness than the resilient members, the resilient members 3 are permitted to yield under weight moving across the floor, vertical movement thus being allowed to the floor over the channels. The entire floor is preferably built up by combining a number of the members I and 3 to form integral sections of convenient size, which are then assembled upon the foundation or sub-floor 5, after a suitable water or moisture-proof coat 4 has been applied to the sub-floor. The integral sections are fastened together, after laying, by the wooden battens and wood screws thus securely holding the four sides of each section to the contiguous sides of the adjacent sections, and the countersinks are then filled with plastic wood or the like.

The cement or other sub-floor 5 is preferably smoothly surfaced, though slight irregularities in surface will not be detrimental to the proper operation of the floor.

Channels 9 are made in the resilient members 3 in which wires, cables, or pipes I0 may be laid in casings II.

A border design I3 may be engraved or painted onto the wearing surface I either before or after the floor is installed.

I claim:-

1. A floor element comprising a slab of resilient material, and a slab of relatively harder wear surface material of horizontal dimensions greater than those of the resilient material slab and cemented thereto in such relation that the edges of the wear surface material slab extend beyond the edges of the resilient material slab.

2. A floor section comprising a layer of closely assembled slabs of suitable wear surface material, a layer of resilient material underlying and cemented to but channeled under the edges of the first named slabs, and battens of less thickness than the depth of the channels, occupying the upper portions of such channels and fastened to the adjacent edges of the Wear surface slabs.

3. A floor comprising a layer of slabs or strips of hard material forming a wear surface, a layer of slabs or strips of resilient material each of less horizontal dimensions than the wear surface slabs or strips and each fastened to the underside of one of the wear slabs or strips so as to have edges of the latter extending beyond the edges of the resilient strips, to form channels between the resient strips covered by the edges of the wear strips when a plurality of combined wear and resilient strips are assembled, and battens of less height than the thickness of the resilient strips, occupying said channels and fastened to adjacent edges of the wear surface strips.

4. A floor comprising a flat Waterproofed foundation surface, flat slabs of resilient material horizontally mounted on said foundation surface but spaced from one another horizontally so as to have channels between adjacent slabs, flat slabs of wear surface material of greater horizontal dimensions than the slabs of resilient material and cemented to the upper surfaces of the slabs of resilient material soas to extend laterally beyond the latter and meet over said channels, the slabs of wear surface and resilient material being in contact throughout their horizontal surfaces, eXceptwhe-re the edges ofthe wear surface slabs extend beyond the edges of the resilient slabs, and battens in said channels of less thickness than the slabs of resilient material and fastened to the edges of adjacent slabs of wear surface material.

5. A floor section comprising a layer of closely assembled slabs of suitable wear surface material, a layer of slabs of resilient material individually underlying and cemented to the individual slabs ing portions fastened to adjacent edges of the wear surface slabs. 1

' AUGUSTO C. GONZALEZ. 

